What's on My Crochet Hook? Harvest Moon Part 3

April 07, 2023

What's on My Crochet Hook? Harvest Moon Part 3

My last update left off on Part 3 Round 35 for the Harvest Moon crochet pattern (designed by Jen Tyler). I've continued to make progress with the pattern and love what I have so far. Keep in mind this is merely an update of my progress and not a step-by-step guide. The designer provides a written pattern as well as detailed video instructions. The pattern is purchased in two parts, the Harvest Moon block and the Harvest Moon extension.

You can see my previous articles showing my progress HERE, and HERE.

Progress through Round 35 Harvest Moon.

Popcorn stitches can be time consuming to make, but the designer shares a technique about making them quickly in Rounds 39 and 40.

Quick method for making popcorn stitches.

Things are going well as I work on Round 41. It is worked on the wrong side, but the bead stitch (dark turquoise) pops through to the right side.

Round 41 is worked on the wrong side.

The bead stitch is worked on the wrong side but pops through to the right side.

ROUND 42: WORKING WITH TWO COLORS

Two colors are worked simultaneously on round 42. It's not too complicated, but the two working yarn strands do tend to get twisted and tangled as you go. So I keep the yarn strands separated as I work to avoid getting the yarns tangled.

How to work two color strands without tangling the working yarns.

For this round the color is changed every two stitches. For my colorway, Color A is blue and Color B is pink. As shown in the photo below, Color B (pink) is being worked over Color A (blue).

Working over the second color.

To change colors from B to A, I will finish the half double crochet by pulling through the new yarn color on the last part of the stitch. I let Color B (pink) drop towards the back.

Let Color B drop towards the back of your work.

I finish the stitch by pulling Color A (blue) through the last loop. I complete the required half double crochets over Color B (pink).

Pull through the new color on the last part of the stitch.

I will change colors again as before, except this time I will cross Color A (blue) over Color B (pink) and let it drop towards the front while I finish my stitch. Then I continue by crocheting over Color A (blue) until the next color change.

Cross Color A over B and let it drop towards the front of your work.

By following this method the yarn gets twisted within the stitches rather than getting tangled up between the two working yarn skeins. It's difficult to explain, but if you have worked with two colors before then I'm sure you understand what I mean.

Round 50:

I am very pleased with my color selections for this section.

Beautiful crochet color combinations.

The next few rounds are completed in a neutral off-white to help balance out the brighter colors.

A neutral color helps with color balance.

Unfortunately I hit a road block with Round 54. The popcorn stitches are very cleverly designed, but they require some elasticity from the yarn to complete the stitch. But the 100% cotton yarn I am using would not stretch enough for this particular stitch. I tried a number of different methods over the course of a few days, but I just couldn't make it work.

Some rounds are just hard.

I didn't want to give up the pattern entirely, so I modified the pattern slightly. I am not super happy about it, but I want to keep my project moving forward. So I'm not mad about it either. If I make this pattern again I think using a larger crochet hook on the previous round (53 I think) would do the trick.

Modified Round 54.

ROAD TRIP:

At this point I packed up my crochet and went to my condo at the beach in North Carolina. I was happy to have Round 54 behind me, and it doesn't bother me so much as I add further rounds. I've made it to Round 58 (over half way finished). The rounds do take longer as the blanket grows, so it might not seem like much progress, but it definitely feels like it in real life.